Sleep Deprivation makes you Hallucinate

If this is incoherent, then I apologize. 

I'm running on three hours of sleep right now.  I only had 5 the night before that, and the night before that, and the night before that...

I've been really busy, and I've been trying to maximize my last few days in the kingdom I love the most. 

Seeing Paul again was really, really good.  We went out for chinese and drinks on Wednesday night, and then spent all of Thursday together because he had the day off work.  We wandered around London the entire day, and I FINALLY got to see the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub!  It was closed for renovations last time I was in London.  Yeah - open since 1667, and the one year I go, it's closed.  It was a fantastic pub - with old wooden beams, and basically - the "tavern" look.  It sold traditional middle english food too, so I had a pheasant for lunch. 

After that, we went shopping on Oxford Street, and collectively spent 3 hours in a bookstore, and then a toy store.  But you don't understand - it was the coolest toy store EVER! 

Toys'R'Us has nothing on Hamleys.  Six floors of everything you can think of, from toys for children, to toys for adults.  I wanted to buy at least half the store.  And they had a stirling silver mariner's compass that I would have died to own, but it was far, far outside my price range.  We spent the evening at an indian restaurant, and then went to see the musical, Avenue Q.  Avenue Q is basically an X rated version of Sesame Street - and it was hilarious.  When the homosexual character started singing about his "girlfriend in Canada" I laughed so hard I cried.  "Girlfriend in Canada" is a euphemism for a girlfriend who doesn't exist (because NOBODY lives in Canada...right?)

I think throughout the whole day, we walked the London core four times.

I spent all of yesterday in Reading with Jamie, and had an amazing time.  I finally got to get my chocolate at a Thornton's chocolatier (think of Purdy's, but infinitely better.)  We wandered for a bit, had delicious italian pizza for lunch, and then took the train back to his house in Shiplake.

Since it was gorgeous out, we spent the afternoon walking around the woods in his little town (village?) - and it was crazy windy! My hair got quite messy.  Unfortunately, my shoes got completely totaled by the mud and swampy bits, and the outsides are still kinda damp today (thank you, goretex - for my dry toesies) and I managed to lose my sunglasses.  We looked everywhere for them, but they were on my head at one point, and we were climbing through fairly dense brush, so I think maybe a tree branch knocked them off my head.  Trying to find a pair of black shades after the sun has set is ridiculous. 

Also, I learned a fun game that apparently, I need to bring back to Canada with me.  Scarf fight.  We took our scarves.  We tied knots in them (I wanted to tie rocks into the knots, but that's against the rules, it seems) and then we fight with them.  Which was loads of fun.  Well...you know, until I damaged my hand, but Jamie was bleeding too, so it's probably fair.  Besides, I'll just feed him to a bear when he comes to Canada, so we can be even. :)

My hand is okay, just a little tender. - my little pinky is really swollen and purple, and when I awoke this morning, the top of my hand and part of my other fingers were a little bruised as well.  The bruises didn't stay anywhere else on my body. 

His mother (who is very sweet) invited me to stay for dinner, so I ate her amazing food, and actually, ending up staying right until the last train at midnight.  I got back to my hotel at 12:30, went to bed at 1:30, and then got up at 5:00 to catch the train out of Reading. 

Getting onto the train this morning was ridiculous.  Reception, which I assumed was open 24 hours was totally closed, so I had no way to check out.  Then, there was no phone to call a taxi to the station (because I still hadn't figured out how to walk there, yet) - so I walked in the pouring rain, and finally figured out how to get to the station on foot.  Somehow, I made it on time, but one train to London Paddington was early, and the other was late, so I didn't quite leave on time.  THEN, I get to Paddington, have to switch via the underground to London Euston, only to discover the tube line between the two stations is closed for construction.  Two tube transfers, and an hour later (I went the long way), I got to the Euston station, only to have JUST missed my train.  I had to sit there for an hour. 

I'm on the train now, somewhere in the midlands.  The train has wifi.  And a good thing too, it's the only thing keeping me awake.

Later on today, I'm meeting Bryan for coffee because he is in Glasgow today, and tonight, I sleep at a hotel near the airport, because I fly out at 6:30 tomorrow morning. 

And I really, really don't want to go. 

Rants and more.

So I could spend an entire week in Edinburgh for the price I'm paying to stay two days in London.  Also, the internet is FIVE STERLING per day.  PER DAY!  This city is ridiculous.

But not as ridiculous as the American man on the train today!  Oh boy.  I try really hard not to pay any attention to stereotypes, and I have some amazing American friends, but this man was the epitomy of the arrogant, I-own-the-world American stereotype.  In short, he was fucking stupid.

He had to wait for me to put my luggage down before he could continue down the train, and the little luggage bin was full after I put my bag in, so I apologized to him and told him I thought there might be another one at the other end of the cabin - and all he did was look at me, like I was a small bug in his way.  At this point, I still thought he was English.  But later, when the fares were being checked on board, his ticket was invalid, and he had to pay extra to stay on the train, but he refused to do that, and he refused to get off the train, and so he made a HUGE deal over it, eventually paid, and then when the train conductor was trying to help him, he dismissed her!  You can't DISMISS a train conductor - he was so rude! Later on, he stopped somebody to ask for directions once he got off the train, and he pulled out the paper that the address was on, and asked what all those numbers and letters meant.  The person who was helping him replied with "Uhm, sir.  That's an address.  And that's a postal code.  Do you know what a postal code is?" - I got in a bit of trouble because I laughed out loud at him, but he deserved it.  And to think, I was originally going to help him out, because his address was on the same street as my hostel.   Asshat.


Anyhow, onto less ranty things. 


The rest of my duration on Orkney was nothing short of fantastic.  On Monday, I went into Kirkwall - the other major city on Orkney Mainland - and wandered around for a bit.  I wandered through the museum, because it was free, and it was snowing outside.  Then, I went to the cathedral...because it was made out of cool rocks...

I do really enjoy cathedrals.  They're always so gorgeous.  The only concern I had with this cathedral was that the support pillars on the outside of the building were eroding away, and it didn't look very safe, but it was just near the door, and since nobody had done anything about it, I presume that meant it was safe.  Usually the UK is pretty dilligent about keeping their cathedrals up (or I presume so, because there is ALWAYS scaffolding on the outside of the cathedrals.  Restoration, and all that.)

After that, I caught the bus back to Stromness, and went for a hike along the seashore.  I found some really awesome seashells, which are now in my backpack, made friends with an alleycat or three, and I saw some seals.  Are they aggressive?  I tried to get as close as possible to take photos, but once I made it to about 10m or so, the seals started snorting at me, or making some sort of huffing sound, and I figured it was time to make myself scarce. 

At one point on the walk, I stripped down to a tshirt and suntanned for a bit on a rock, because the weather had gotten so nice.  About an hour after that, I was stuck in a blizzard.  Gotta love weather in Scotland, eh? 

 

Actually, that brings up another point I never bothered to mention.  Orkney doesn't actually consider itself part of Scotland.  If anything, they think of themselves as Norweigan.  Orcadians don't fly the Scottish flag, they fly their own flag, and then the Norweigan flag, before they will fly the Scottish flag. 

I spent the duration of Monday evening doing some homework (I touched it!) and then drinking an entire bottle of wine...to myself.  It was a poor choice in judgement.  I'm not actually even sure when I went to bed that night.  Nor do I remember the very end of the night.  Apparently, this makes me a good Scotsman.

Somehow, I woke up at 5am without a hangover (or still drunk), and got ready to catch the 6:00 ferry.  I could have caught a later ferry, but I was dead set, and determined to see the sun rise at sea. 

 

  

And I did.  And it was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever born witness to.  We also got caught in a blizzard at sea, but once we reached the Highlands, it had blown over, and you couldn't even tell we had ever been snowed on.

I made it to Edinburgh at 5pm last night, and stayed pretty low key.  Went for a small walk around Old Town, just because I love it there, and stayed in for the rest of the evening.  Exhaustion had finally won the battle.  I was sad to leave Orkney, but coming back to Edinburgh felt very, very close to coming home.  I truly do love that city.

I spent another 5 hours on the train today, and made it to London.  Tonight is for shenanigans with Paul! 

Wildaboutorkney? I do believe so.

I learned so many things today that I'm not entirely sure if I can actually get them all down here without forgetting something, or worse - writing a bloody novel about my day.  

I woke up to -6C degree weather.  My tour guide, Michael - (who is 72 by the way, and looks to be about 50) - was amazing.  I was picked up from the Stromness Ferry Terminal, and we spent the day together.  The advantage to traveling in winter is that I got a private tour - the disadvantage, well...the snow, for starters. 

Our first site was the standing stones of Stenness.  A few miles outside of town, on a little farmside covered with sheep, stands three standing stones, the remnants of what was once a great oval of 11 standing stones.  These stones are made from the local sandstone, and were laid down nearly 1000 years prior to Stonehenge, making them the oldest standing stones in all of...Britain?  Or Europe...I cannae remember.

Over time, they have fallen down, and three stones are all that remains.  During the 18th century, the stone circle was referred to as the "Temple of the Moon" and when a man and a woman wanted to marry, they went inside the circle, and the woman prayed while the man looked on.  When that was done, they walked from Stenness to the Ring O' Brodgar (I'll get to this in a moment) which is not far away, and the man would pray to God while the woman looked on.  They referred to this standing circle as the "Temple of the Sun."

Once this ritual was over, the couple would return to Stenness, and head over to the Odin Stone, as it was called, which was a singular standing stone off to the side of Stenness, and it contained within it a circle carved into the centre of the stone.  The man and the woman would link their arms through the Odin stone, and then they became married for a year and a day.  If upon the ending of their year and day, they wished to separate - they could do so, or if they wished to remain married, they did the ritual all over again, and again, and again, each time becoming married for one year and one day.  The Odin Stone no longer stands today because a farmer some time ago, took it down.  The local people were outraged, and tried to have the law do something about it, but nothing could be done (all he did was move a rock, really) - but it is told that they made his life very hard from then on.

The Ring O' Brodgar was built around the same time, as a perfect circle of stones.  Originally numbering over 60, about 30 of them are still standing today.  And one of them even fell over because of a lightning strike!  The two standing circles were connected via a corridor of sorts, designed out of more standing stones, but only one of those stones remains standing today.

(I forgot to mention - the only place I could take photos of this was on the standing stones of Brodgar.  It says Bjorn!) 

The next site we went to was Maeshowe (think Mays-how). 

Maeshowe was built in approximately 2700BC, and is apparently Orkney's largest cairn (read: tomb).  The doorway to get into the cairn was I'd say about four and a half feet high, meaning we got to test out my extreme claustrophobia and amazon-like height to get into the chamber. 

 

 

Completely dark inside until the lights were turned on, Maeshowe has four chambers in total, including the main chamber.  Each little chamber is above ground height, and was thought to house the dead.  When the site was excavated, absolutely no artifacts were found, but something even better (in my eyes) was discovered.  In the 1000's when the Norse invaded, it is thought that they, or perhaps someone earlier, broke into the tomb through the roof and robbed the tomb of any of it's belongings.  The Norse, however - did leave something behind.  Futhark.  Futhark, written all over the walls.  I wasn't allowed to take any photographs due to the delicate nature of the findings, and 1000's of flashes over time can slowly degrade the writing, but photos can be found on the Maeshowe Website.

The inscriptions, in reality - are just Norse graffiti.  One section writes about how the author of the runes is the best, well written author in the world.  Another, written high up, quite literally just says "This was written high up" - more inscriptions on other walls talk about how beautiful and lovely the men's girlfriends were, and other things like that. 

But they were gorgeous.  So absolutely gorgeous.  I saw Norse age Futhark.  For realz.

After Maeshowe, we went to Skara Brae. 

Skara Brae is a preserved village on the other side of the island - though to be honest, I didn't get to see much of it because that half of the island was covered in snow.  I did, however - make a little snowman, have a snowball fight (with a 72 year old!), and eat some very tasty carrot soup at the tourist cafe nearby. 

The rest of the day went on much like this.  Because I was the only person on tour, and we had extra time, Michael took me down to many of the local beaches, and to Scapa Flow, and we watched the waves crash against the shore, and saw neat rocks, and visited the remains of a palace that belonged to an Earl in the 16th century.  Today, it's used by children as a large grassy area to play football (soccer).  We probably spent a half hour at one of the beaches, looking for a little seashell the size of my pinky fingernail.  We never did find it (but I grabbed you some very, very pretty sand, mom!)

A Long Way From Home - 58.968341N, 3.295026W

Everyday gets more amazing than the last.  I may have said that already, and I may have not, but it is absolutely true.

I awoke this morning to the sun shining, and an inch of fresh snow on the ground.  After having stayed up late watching the Olympics, I awoke early to do the same thing.  I was really hoping to get in some Canadian hockey, but I did get to watch Sweden win a game (go Sedins!)  After breakfast, I left the B&B and went for a walk along the beach, which I was surprised to discover in the daylight was a mere half block away from where I spent the night sleeping.  I walked all up and down it, and watched the surf, and as I was heading back, I bumped into the owner's husband, who was walking his little dog - and I did the walk all over again while I talked to him.  (We saw seals!) 

 

  

 

The tide was coming in, so we walked through the park in town, and all through the town before returning to the B&B.  I still had an hour to kill before I needed to leave for my ferry, so I went back down to the beach and had the single best shortbread I've ever eaten, served to me by a young dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty who blushed every time I looked at him.  I think he baked it himself, because when I was paying, I complimented the café on the shortbread, and he looked very, very pleased with himself.

The owners of the B&B very graciously drove me to the ferry port, a few miles outside of town, and the ferry ride was nothing short of spectacular.  I spent all 90 minutes of the ride on deck, chatting with some old men.  They were really quite nice.  There were eight of them in total, though I didn't speak to them all, and they were taking their friend on his bachelor party to Orkney to go on a specially reserved tour of the Highland Park distillery, which is the groom's favourite whiskey.  The groom - John - was trying to convince me that I wanted to go away to Venice with him next month and get married, because I enjoy fishing, and his current fiancé doesn't.  I tried to point out the age difference (he was at least as old as papa), but he promised to be a perfect gentlemen!

 

 

On the ferry ride, we passed by some magnificant sedimentary cliffs, and a stack the locals refer to as the Old Man of Hoy.  The whole ride was gorgeous, though my face is windburnt now.

When I got into the Stromness port, my breath was taken away.  Stromness is a picturesque harbour town, very small, with one way cobblestone streets, no sidewalks, and little brick houses dotting the horizon.

The only thing that put a damper on the day was arriving at my hostel.  I found the hostel crammed into the corner of an alleyway, door unlocked.  I walked in to find a note on the table that said staff don't stay on site, and that if I wanted to book a room, I had to walk a block down the street to the payphone, call this number, and within 10 minutes, someone would show up.

I did all that, and 40 minutes later, the woman arrived, gave me the keys, and left.  I didn't even get any info out of her without asking, except that one of the bathrooms was broken.  I wasn't perturbed yet - and I was starving, so I dropped my stuff off and left for lunch.  I went to this amazing (everything is amazing these days) - amazing little bistro, and had a nut roast with 3 types of salad, and a glass of mulled wine - a bistro that sells mulled wine! 

After that, I went back to my hostel to discover that there is no heat in the ENTIRE building, and that my room is the size of my queen sized bed at home.  I tried to ignore it, but I needed to wear my toque and scarf inside, and eventually, I crawled under the covers.  I was extremely unhappy because I had been chilly all day on my walk, and on the ferry, and now, I couldn't get warm and I was starting to get really shivery.  I was talking to Bryan online at the same time, and he called the other hostel in town for me and booked me a room.  I lost my 42 pounds sterling to the other place, because no refunds were allowed - there was even a sign that said "No Refunds" - and that's where I am now.  This hostel is much better.  Cleaner, bigger, and warmer.  I did have to pay another 48 pounds sterling for the three nights, but all in all, I think it's a small price to pay.

It was snowing about two hours ago.

Castles and Wine

I learned today that there are few places on earth that are more beautiful than the Scottish Highlands. 

I have arrived in Thurso, after an eight-hour train ride, and three transfers from Falkirk.  My last couple of days have been well, and I always find it awkward to update on more then one day-per-post, but I have been extremely preoccupied with other things, and there was no wifi at Bryan's, so if I wanted to update, I'd have to plug into his hardwire, and well...I was too lazy.  Simply put.

Anyhow. This is the accumulation of posts I've written offline, and new things I'm adding today, so it may seem a little choppy, but I'm going to do my best to integrate it the best I can.  I left Edinburgh early Wednesday morning, after some friendly goodbyes with my hostel-mates, and a promise to mail some Kraft Dinner, Kraft Peanut Butter, and Aunt Jemima pancake syrup to Josie at the hostel, a fellow Canadian. 

Met Bryan in Falkirk at the train station, and bussed home to his house in Bonnybridge.  Dropped my baggage off (which is much heavier due to excess amounts of alcohol) and met his parents, who are nice.  I was not the most comfortable at first, because I’m nervous about being a guest in someone’s house, but I was fine by the end of my stay. 

We went to Callendar House in Falkirk, which is somewhat of a museum about the area, followed by a walk through the forest to William Forbes Maloseum, who was the owner of Callendar House.   I don’t really feel like that was an important tidbit of information to share, but the walk was nice anyhow. 

 

  

Then, we walked back into town, hopped another bus to the Falkirk Wheel.  We didn’t go on it; we really just looked at it.  Apparently, it allows passage to little boats traveling along the canal.  We walked all the way from here, back to Bonnybridge, through a forest, where we passed the Antonine Wall – a wall created by the Romans in the 140’s to separate England from Scotland.  You can still somewhat see where the wall used to stand, even though it’s not there anymore.

 

OH! I saw a deer! I didn’t have time to snap a photo, but that’s okay.  I was beginning to question whether anything larger than squirrels and pigeons lived in the UK. 

Bryan's house was nice, but I found it to be a little different than what I'm used to.  I guess it's just a different way of living, I suppose.  For example, I had a bath for the first time in over a year because they haven’t a shower installed, there was no wireless internet, they reuse cooking oil, instead of using new oil each time (I'm sorry, this is still bizarre).  I’m not complaining, it’s just...different.  Baths, really.  Who bathes these days?

And they have a one year old border collie named Spots.  He likes to smell me.  It drives me crazy, and even though he’s adorable, it reminds me why I am a cat person.  (Cat PERSON.  Not cat LADY.  There is a difference, thank you very much.)

On Thursday, we went into Stirling.  It took quite some time to get there, and I was EXHAUSTED from the previous day(s), but the day was gorgeous, and really - what more could I ask for, other than good company, and good weather?

We walked to the Wallace Monument, which was actually really amazing.  I mean, the tourist aspect of the monument was a little lacking, but the walk to the hiking trail, and then the hiking trail up, and the building itself was fantastic.  I'm a happy little Canadian whenever the sun is shining and I get to hike.  We walked up all 246 steps to the top of the building, and I even got to see William Wallace's sword!  After that, we walked back down, and to a pub to meet a friend of Bryan's.

His name is Ben, and I convinced him to come to Stirling Castle with us - so the three of us spent the afternoon together.  Stirling Castle disappointed me a little because it was fairly expensive, and many of the rooms of the castle were actually closed to the public, I couldn't walk along the walkpaths because they were closed, and there wasn't really much to look at, to be honest.  I did, however, get to see a tapestry weaver at work, which was nothing short of amazing in itself.  The patience required to weave tapestries far surpasses any inkling of patience that I could ever muster.  Even if I tried really, really hard.

After that, we headed back to Bonnybridge and bought flowers for a friend of ours that's been sick, and dropped them off at her house.  She really liked them, and was quite excited to meet me (we had only spoken online, previously).  We didn't stay long, because her little brother had the flu, but I'm glad that I got to meet Kim anyhow. 

We ended the day the best way possible: with a couple bottles of wine, some cheese, and some pancakes - because I had brought Bryan some maple syrup from Canada as a gift.

I wouldn't trade the last couple of days for anything in the world.

I think in a Scottish accent sometimes.

Today has been most excellent.

I started the day off right, with a small couple hour hike in Holyrood Park, where I saw columnar basalts, loads of COLUMNAR BASALTS!  It was volcanigasmic.  

I hiked around, took some photos, and headed up to Arthur's Seat - a massive (well...260 metres...) piece of extinct volcano, part of the same volcanic system that created the crag that the castle sits upon.  I took the easy path up and got covered in mud.

On the way down, my level of stupidity increased.  I decided to forge my own way down the cliff.  And I did.  And I made it to the bottom, after having to practically rock climb down icy, muddy, slippery sections of broken, fragmented basalts.  Somehow, I didn't slip.  Somehow, I didn't die.  But it was awesome nonetheless. 

I spent the rest of my day chillin' in the kitchen at the hostel, helping to make pancakes for International Pancake Day (which is today, and apparently has something remotely to do with Lent, which starts tomorrow) and then I went on a whiskey tasting tour. 

My backpack is now heavier due to excess amounts of alcohol.  Delicious, nutritious alcohol.  Benriach, single malt Speyside whiskey, 12 year. 

The whiskey tour itself was a wee bit cheesy, having spent the first ten minutes going down a virtual tour of a distillery in an automated cart shaped like a whiskey barrel.  The rest got better, as we learned how to take whiskey notes, and using aromas in sealed jars, taught us about the types of smells each whiskey region in Scotland has - two of which, I was allergic to, so I couldn't actually smell the last jar because my nose was stuffed.  Yeah, highland whiskey apparently smells like perfume.  I really wish I would have been warned before I smelled it.  My nose was stuffed almost instantaneously.  Anyhow, because I sometimes have more balls than brains, I went for the Islay whiskey, because the guide said it was the peatiest, woodiest, strongest whiskey out of the ones we were allowed to try.  And I tried it.  And I can say with pride that I did not cough, nor choke on it.  However, I don't think I had any tastebuds left at the end, and it burnt going all the way down my throat - which apparently is raw, I found out.  I didn't know this until I tried the whiskey. 

The room we tried the whiskey in was amazing.  Encased in the room we were in, was wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor glass cases, which held the world's largest collection of whiskey, the oldest of which dating back to 1897.

After the tour, I went into the shop and bought the above forementioned whiskey - but not before I went down into the whiskey bar to taste it.  Had a nice chat with the bartender.  I love Scottish people. 

I'm pretty upset to be leaving Edinburgh tomorrow, to be honest.  I don't want to go - I love it here. 

A Rather Long Day

Rejoice, for I have finally found free wifi. Naturally, this means I get to catch up on all my webcomics. Naturally.

I'm in Argyle Backpackers right now, in Edinburgh. I just got in, perhaps close to an hour ago. I had contemplated writing last night, but a series of events led me to be out on the streets of Glasgow until the wee hours of the morning.

I started my day at about 9:00am yesterday, walked down to the nearest underground station, just to find it didn't open until 10, which was TWO whole hours earlier than ANYTHING else opened in Glasgow on a Sunday. Religious folk - expected to be in Church prior to noon, I suppose. Either that, or they were all out drinking until the crack of dawn, and can't be expected to work prior to noon. I suspect it is part of the first, and most of the latter. So while I was waiting for the underground to open, I walked around the block, and bumped into one of the guys at the hostel whom I had spoken with after breakfast. He was looking for a church to go to, so I walked with him for a couple of blocks to kill time. We found a pretty building, and thought it was a church at first, but apparently it was an apartment suite of some kind.

And it had the COOLEST pillars - geologists, arm yourselves with a mop.  You'll need it.

I headed back after that, and caught my subway train (I have never been so claustrophobic in my entire life...very very small platforms, approximately the length of myself with my arms outstretched was the only distance between the edges of the two platforms where the trains came in, and it was maybe 12 feet high at most - I actually had to close my eyes and breathe through my mouth as the train came to a halt.)  I was okay once I got on the train though, and the station I got off at was much bigger, but it reeked of the foulest stench.  Mm, old pee. 

I spent the better part of my morning in East Side, was going to go to the Barras Flea Market, but it was closed, even when it shouldn't have been, and that is probably for the best, anyhow.  SHANTY TOWN.

Very slummy, and somewhat disturbing.  I wasn't really comfortable lurking around the area.  To kill time, because remember, it was Sunday and nothing was open, I walked uphill and saw the Museum of Religious Life (which was clear from the rain, and free) - for a museum, it was not bad.  They had a gorgeous marble sculpture of Shiva, and another beautiful one of Ganesh.  I saw a statue of Joan of Arc (who is by far my most favourite historical figure, next to King Arthur, anyhow).  I was somewhat disappointed that paganism wasn't really represented in the museum, unless one Greek vase, and one statue of Hermes counts. 

I skipped the cathedral, due to a Sunday service - and I wasn't going anywhere near the Necropolis.  Dead people, ugh.  I snapped a few photos from a distance. 

Later in the day, after much more walking and some small shopping, I again bumped into that guy from the hostel (his name is Neil, by the way, and he's Scottish) - and his hostel roommate, Alexander, who was from Brazil.  We went for lunch, and ended up spending the remainder of the day together, until the wee hours of the morning.  Checked out the University of Glasgow, the sight of which produces an envy that to the nine depths of hell I cannot describe.  Just look at the photos:  

I deliberately set out to find the earth sciences department.  More envy - it's gorgeous in there.  Why does my university have to be made from concrete?  No fair, I say.  NO FAIR.

Anyhow, I really wanted to go see a live band play yesterday evening, but the place I wanted to go to - King Tut's Wah Wah's Hut - was completely sold out, even though the website said nothing of the kind.  It's unfortunate, because Oasis and Snow Patrol were discovered there, and it would have been really cool to see.  Instead, we settled for pub hopping, and eventually got free admission into some club - we didn't stay long after deciding we were years older than everyone inside.  I think we got back sometime around 1am.

I left this morning for Edinburgh, where I am right now - and I think that I have been sitting for too long, so it's time to go wander around.  Adíos!